CHAP. 6.—MINIMUM WAGE FOR WOMEN IN UNITED STATES 5H]

The main claims as to disadvantages resulting from the law are:
(1) Higher wages will result in higher production costs and prices
and no greater real wages than before. This obviously combines two
entirely different claims: (¢) That minimum wages increase costs of
production and prices; (b) that increases of prices will be so great as
to bring down real wages to the starting level. (2) Industries
burdened by minimum wage will be handicapped in interstate competition
 and move away from the State. (8) Substandard workers
will lose their employment. (4) The minimum wages will become
the average or even maximum wages.

Removal of Unfair Depression of Lowest Wages of Female
Workers

_ The reports of officials administering minimum wage legislation
In the various States all give the same picture of the lowest wage
levels being materially raised by the wage orders. In the mercantile
 industry of California the percentage of women and female
minors receiving wages under $16 a week has, under the influence
of the minimum wage order, decreased radically, while the percentage
of women receiving higher wages has increased correspondingly,
as may be seen in Table 9.
TaBLE 9.—Minimum wage and the per cent of women receiving each classified
wage in specified industries in California, 1919, 1920, and 1922
MERCANTILE INDUSTRY

Per cent of women and female minors (time workers) receivinz—

Minimum

wage
award

Date of pay
roll

$10... __
$13.50. _.
$16. ___
$16. ___

Mar. 81919
July 12,1919
Aug. 7,1920
Mar. 11,1922

$10..____| May 24,1919
$1350.22! Aug. 30,1019
je... Aug. 7,1920
$16_____ "| Mar. 11 1922

$10______
$13.50_.
316...
516. .____

lan. 18, 1919
lept. 20, 1919
Jet. 2, 1920
‘Aar. 11. 1022

Num- [—
ber of s
5
325 Un-! and
older unments
 | $5 der
RR

1,336 4.3
1,605 | 4.4
L710 | 3.1
2543 | 1.7.

481
568
504
R01

i.

A WYIT

656
915
1,015

7
A

2.8
2913.5

$8
and
under

$10

gy. 0

$10
and
under

11

0 9

$11 Over,
and $13. 50
un- $13.50 and |
der under
"13. 50 216

$16
and
under

®17

$17
and
under

296)

$20
end
under

395

2
and | $30
un- | and [1%
der | over!
230

FT

4319.77.56 42 2.0 100
5211.1 8113.9 21, 100
22.8 120.1 115.5 | 6.3 | 5.8 100
19.8 (25.3 120.4 | 8.1 | 7.6-| 100

"1la7] 29 0.60.1" 100
(3h31l|e1|1s| 2:00
3.6 280 14.0 | 4.0] 8 100
S45 30.8 1149 43] 8° 100

rr oTL
tos

23.7
19.4
9.7
10.

2.8 10.€
14.0 | 19.0
29 | 14.9 25.2
14' 14.0 22.3

o 0.8 0.4 100
I] 24 1.0 100
. 5 4.2 3.0 | 100
19.1 13.6 | 4.31 3.5 | 100

The above table shows the influence of the minimum wage on the
development of particular industries. Such influence on elimination
of sweating wages is general but not quite uniform. The slower percentage
 decrease in the low-wage groups in Wisconsin is shown in
" California. Industrial Welfare Commission. Report for the biennial periods 1919-20
and 1921-22. Sacramento, 1924, pp. 66, 98, 108.